I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels and try to take the stairs if I’m not going up too many flights. ISTM, that most of the hotels being built today are all similarly designed with stairwells at opposite sides of the building. One stairwell usually has access to the roof while other one doesn’t. Why is this?
If roof access is good, why not build both stairwells that way? The answer may be cost but it’s hard to see that the marginal cost of another door on the roof is that high compared to the cost of the hotel.
It’s good to have access to the roof, vs. not having it at all. But roof access is only rarely needed at all, and then usually not by paying customers, so there’s very little added value in having multiple points of roof access. There are also potential drawbacks, in things like security and structural integrity: An almost-never-used flight of stairs is a place for people or things to be hidden, it’s another entry from the outside that must be kept locked and possibly surveiled, the roof is probably more likely to leak at the juncture with the stairwell structure, and so on.
I’d guess that roof access is an “employees only” thing and fewer access points means fewer chances for nosy guests to get up there and fewer chances for broken locks, fewer doors to monitor, etc.
Plus any roof penetration is a chance for leaks into the structure so the fewer, the better.
Edit: Chronos said almost exactly the same thing and with more words!
First of all, the extra cost of just this one thing may be immaterial compared to the total cost, but the sum of dozens of these things will add up to something other than an immaterial extra cost.
Second, for what purpose would the hotel need two roof access points? Remember, these roof access points need long-term maintenance as well, it’s just another place for a roof leak to develop.
It’s more likely a question of liability (and maintenance). Once you start allowing guests to access the roof, you need to pay more for liability insurance and the risk of being sued if some drunk falls off, even with a railing.
You only need one roof access to get on the roof for repairs. A 2nd access adds complications with little advantage.
The door to the roof of my last high rise was left unlocked by a contractor. One of the tenants employee found it unlocked and decided to have lunch up there. He climbed up on the parapet wall and sat down with his feet hanging over the side of the building. 14 story building. If he had dropped anything like maybe his can of soda it would have landed on the sidewalk.
Some think that going to the roof in a fire is a good idea. One of the worst places you could go. Assume a high rise on fire a major fire. The natural up drafts on a high rise can be high with out the heat of a fire. If there is a major fire in the building the updrafts are going to make it unsafe to try and pick those trying to escape. Those who go to the roof are going to be until the firemen can make it up the stairwell and escort them down.
Also roof space is valuable for services such as HVAC , lift motors, back-up power generation, solar cells, crane laydown access for major works, communications equipment, water tanks for domestic and fire. Many high rises are jam-packed with this type of gear and wish they had more space.
And the weight of additional concrete, steel and associated wouldn’t be inconsequential, despite it likely being projected down the strong column stairwell core.
I agree with the OP. Roof access is there incase the place is on fire and the guests need an alternate exit. I remember when I was young watching a special about a fire in a las vegas high rise hotel and many of the guests died because they couldn’t access the roof, and get rescued by helicopter, and going down meant going through the fire.
In a high rise the last place you want to go. With the up drafts helicopter rescue is almost impossible. And if they pick up a few at a time where are they going to put them down? Unless there has been an explosion or someone has propped the stairwell door open there should be no fire in the stairwell.
I’d question that statement (I know, question). Why do you feel that roof access is good? The only thing up there is roofing materials and mechanicals. There’s no reason why a guest should ever be up on the roof (assuming it’s not designed for guest access), so I can’t see any reason to have any more access points than necessary.
In fact, in some OSHA or insurance thing I read not that long ago, they even suggested not only keeping the door secured, but monitored via camera and having and keeping a log of anyone who accessed it. Keep in mind, in general, the roof is general a bunch of gravel, some HVAC equipment, a little bit of ductwork and a bunch of electricl conduit (to trip over). None of which guests should be anywhere near.
Again, if the roof is meant for guest access that’s one thing, but assuming it’s not, I can’t see why you’d want more people to get up there. WRT a fire, is there a statistical, documented amount of people that have died due to not reaching the the roof? Even better of the fire dept made a statement along the lines of ‘if they could only get up there’. I know it’s more expensive, but ISTM, a high rise, again WRT fire, would be much better off putting their money towards more ways to get to the ground rather than the roof. A trend I’ve been seeing is patio doors on upper floors with gates over them, like this, which, so far as I can tell, are specifically so fire fighters can get people out.
Keep in mind that, sure, a balcony is a nice selling point, but it’s also your ‘second exit’ should there be a fire on your floor (and, yes, I’ve seen the video of the guy jumping from his balcony to the one below it). But, regardless, it’s there for safety, not because the builder just wanted to add a nice perk.
I think people overestimate the prevalence of helicopters in the public safety forces anyways. Even major cities do not have skyscraper fire rescue helicopters buzzing around waiting to pluck people from roofs. The helicopters that rescued people from the MGM Grand fire weren’t even normally in Las Vegas. Any other day they would have been in Florida.
In fact, you’d think with the shear amount of (clueless) tourists in Las Vegas, they’d have as many safety protocols as they could there. Even if it meant have a helicopter sitting idle nearly all the time and a handful of pilots taking turns being on call.
In Milwaukee, we have the flight for life (like most other major cities, I assume), but that wouldn’t do any good, I don’t think. However, we also have the coast guard. They do have a helicopter and I know it has a winch and the ability to pluck people off of bluffs (or, ya know, the lake) when they get caught on them (and hurt) and the the fire fighters can’t carry them out, so while that might work, it would mean lifting one or two victims at a time. It might do the job, or in a fire so bad that people are heading to the roof, if might mean leaving 30 people up there.
Long story short, in a fire, like a horror movie, go downstairs, not upstairs.
As an aside, there’s a hotel I stay at in Seattle when overnighting there that has a rooftop deck that’s open to the public, and is even advertised as one of the hotel’s amenities.
Only one of the two elevators goes up to the roof, though, and you can’t control which car you’ll get when you call for the elevator.
Which you wouldn’t be doing if there’s a fire, so it’s moot.
ETA, but as a general point, I understand.
It reminds me of some place I was at where someone was having a conversation IN the elevator door and when I asked them if I could get on she told me to use the other one. I had to (because I repeated it a bunch of times) sort of rudely tell her that it won’t let me call the other elevator to this floor since there’s already one here, you guys either have to get on or get off since no one else get do anything.
ETA, I remember, they dropped their keys down the shaft (where the door is) and were holding the door because they were scared to use it. I told them, the keys were all the way at the bottom. The maintenance guy could get them, the elevator moving up and down isn’t going to make it any better or worse.
